5 April 2010

Post race thoughts

Just wanted to wrap up a few thoughts about my North Tyneside 10k experience. Not to be overly critical or analytical, just to put things into perspective and learn something from it.

It was important to me that I had a good run and enjoyed it – which I did. The fact that I found my best ever sprint finish and recovered pretty quickly makes me even more confident that I can push it a bit more.

I’ve been asked for my advice on running twice this week. That feels nice. I’d like to be able to give more of that and share some of the encouragement and support that’s benefited me with other.

Be prepared – someone always needs your spare safety pins.

The relax and enjoy mantra works.

I’d like to be more confident about feeling the right pace and sticking with it. So I might try out the virtual partner on my Garmin on my training runs to get used to that.

Visualising the race and knowing when I might start to fade, worked and I found a way back into the run at every point.

I think my fuelling may have been a bit off. I didn’t try anything different, but I don’t think I ate enough the day before the race. My nerves put paid to any hunger, so rather than regular snacks I had to make myself eat at mealtimes (not like me).

I also didn’t have anything after 5pm, other than a few non-alcoholic drinks at a birthday party. But on reflection, coca cola wasn’t a good choice, as I was still on a sugar and caffeine high and found it hard to get to sleep.

The party was good as it took my mind off the race. I relaxed and had a good time. So that’s good too. That I can walk into a room where I only know three people and make some new friends and enjoy seeing those I already know having a great time.

So future race notes – try and have some kind of distraction planned before race day. I spend a lot of time in my own head. It’s good to get out sometimes.